Three senior resident doctors at AIIMS were on Sunday allegedly assaulted by a patient’s relatives following which doctors at the premier hospital went on an indefinite strike demanding adequate security measures.

The doctors alleged that those accompanying the patient to the Surgical Emergency of the institute brandished guns and created a ruckus before beating up the three doctors, who were on duty, and fleeing the hospital campus in an SUV by breaking the main gate of AIIMS.

The hospital administration lodged a complaint with the police, who in turn have arrested three persons in connection with the incident.

The resident doctors have gone on strike demanding that enough armed security personnel be deployed outside the Emergency to prevent such incidents.

“We all resident doctors have gone on strike from this evening. This is not at all done that patients’ relatives assault doctors who are after all there to save their lives.

We try our best. Today three senior resident doctors were beaten up, and during the incident one of the doctors’ nasal bone was fractured,” Dr Shashank Pooniya, General Secretary of AIIMS Resident Doctors Association, said.

“We demand from the administration that security should be deployed outside the emergency. Not just security, but armed security should be there to prevent such untoward incidents from happening,” he said.

According to hospital sources, the patient was brought to the Surgical Emergency where the senior resident doctors on duty examined him and found it to be a case of neurosurgery and a neurosurgeon was called.

Meanwhile, the doctors present on duty performed the initial procedure, but before the neurosurgeon reached the ward the patient’s family got agitated and pulled out pistols and created a ruckus in the emergency ward.

They also beat up three resident doctors before fleeing from the hospital in their SUV by breaking the main gate of AIIMS, the sources said.